The University of California, Berkeley, will cut off public access to tens of thousands of video lectures and podcasts in response to a U.S. Justice Department order that it make the educational content accessible to people with disabilities.

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Today, the content is available to the public on YouTube, iTunes U and the universitys webcast.berkeley site. On March 15, the university will begin removing the more than 20,000 audio and video files from those platforms — a process that will take three to five months — and require users sign in with University of California credentials to view or listen to them.

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The university will continue to offer massive open online courses on edX and said it plans to create new public content that is accessible to listeners or viewers with disabilities.

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This move will also partially address recent findings by the Department of Justice, which suggests that the YouTube and iTunes U content meet higher accessibility standards as a condition of remaining publicly available, Koshland said. Finally, moving our content behind authentication allows us to better protect instructor intellectual property from pirates who have reused content for personal profit without consent.

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The Justice Department, following an investigation, in August determined that the university was violating the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990.

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Stacy Nowak, one of the complainants, referred comments to the Justice Department and the National Association of the Deaf. The NAD did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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The department ordered the university to make the content accessible to people with disabilities. Berkeley, however, publicly floated an alternative: removing everything from public view.

Cathy Koshland, UC Berkeley vice chancellor for undergraduate education, sent this message to the campus community today:

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Dear Campus Community,

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I wanted to share with you the decision to restrict access to our legacy Course Capture (classroom lecture) videos and podcasts, currently searchable at webcast.berkeley.edu and found on YouTube and UC Berkeley iTunesU, to members of the campus community.

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As part of the campuss ongoing effort to improve the accessibility of online content, we have determined that instead of focusing on legacy content that is 3-10 years old, much of which sees very limited use, we will work to create new public content that includes accessible features. Our public legacy libraries on YouTube and iTunesU include over 20,000 publications. This move will also partially address recent findings by the Department of Justice which suggests that the YouTube and iTunesU content meet higher accessibility standards as a condition of remaining publicly available. Finally, moving our content behind authentication allows us to better protect instructor intellectual property from pirates who have reused content for personal profit without consent.

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Since fall 2015 we have piloted publishing all of our Course Capture content behind CAS/CalNet authentication. This strategy has enhanced our ability to accommodate students and UC Berkeley community members who have demonstrated an accessibility need, and we have concluded that authentication is an intervention that is appropriately responsive to the Berkeley community.

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We will continue to evaluate the role of online Course Capture and distribution in tandem with advances in technology befitting the No. 1 public institution in the country. Berkeley will maintain its commitment to sharing content to the public through our partnership with EdX (edx.org). This free and accessible content includes a wide range of educational opportunities and topics from across higher ed.

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Beginning March 15, 2017, access to iTunesU course content will be suspended. On the same day we will begin the process of moving the publicly offered YouTube content made from the current legacy channel [youtube.com/ucberkeley] to a new authentication login required channel. The entire process is expected to take three to five months.

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The complete article may be read at the URL immediately above.

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University May Remove Online Content to Avoid Disability Law
U.S. Justice Department finds that Berkeley MOOCs and YouTube content don’t meet federal requirements.

The University of California, Berkeley, has announced that it may eliminate free online content rather than comply with a U.S. Justice Department order that it make the content accessible to those with disabilities.

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The content in question is all free and is for the general public to use. “The departments findings do not implicate the accessibility of educational opportunities provided to our enrolled students,” said a statement on the situation by Cathy Koshland, vice chancellor for undergraduate education.

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